Replacing Spurrier

Finding a football coach for the University of Florida isn’t a hard job. Finding the right coach is a very difficult task. There are a lot of factors Athletic Director Jeremy Foley is dealing with, not the least of which is the next coach will have to follow Steve Spurrier. Spurrier was so successful at Florida and is so beloved by the Gators as one of their own, that the next coach will never reach that level.

Never.

It doesn’t matter what he does, he’ll never be Spurrier.

So Foley has to hire somebody who is something in their own right, not somebody who comes in and tries to match what Steve has done either on the field or in personality. Bob Stoops was the perfect choice, the right fit, but after saying he’d take the job, something made him change his mind. He doesn’t have any ties to Florida except he worked for Spurrier there.

Mike Shanahan would be fine except he didn’t like the college game the first time around when he was an assistant for Charley Pell. The recruiting, the alumni, the classes all got in the way of what he liked best: coaching football.

So now who?

Steve has such a strong personality that none of his current assistants seem ready to take the job. Outside the program there are former Gator assistants and players all over the place guys like Ron Zook, Mike Mularkey and Chan Gailey, and there are plenty of young, energetic coaches with no ties to the University who could create excitement and win at Florida. But they’ll all always have one major flaw: they’re not Steve Spurrier.

This situation is in flux to say the least, and we’ll give you the latest insight on the Internet.